To link to the entire object, paste this link in email, IM or documentTo embed the entire object, paste this HTML in websiteTo link to this page, paste this link in email, IM or documentTo embed this page, paste this HTML in website

Kate Chopin (1851-1904) published Bayou Folk in 1894. It was her second book, and her first to be commercially published. Although today Chopin is considered among the most important women in nineteenth-century American fiction, she was a highly controversial writer during her lifetime. Her novel, The Awakening, published in 1899, brought Chopin critical abuse and public denunciation as an immoralist, and she consequently abandoned writing. More recent critics call it a masterpiece of its time, significant for its social and psychological themes. Special Collections recently acquired a copy of Bayou Folk, in which Chopin has written out and signed a variant version of her poem, “White Oaks,” substituting “live oaks” for “white oaks”: Of all the places on earth I know I’d rather stay where the live oaks grow. From dawn till night, the whole day long They sing their musical, mystical song Of rest, rest for the time is flying, Dream, dream for the day is dying! Oh! That tomorrow were far away And all forever a long today When the world stands still and the soft winds blow In the beautiful land where the live oaks grow! Although Chopin biographer Emily Toth suspects that the author inscribed more than one copy of this book, no others inscribed by her are known to survive, perhaps because the book was not made from sturdy materials. In fact, LSU's copy is so fragile that the originals cannot safely be displayed.

Kate Chopin (1851-1904) published Bayou Folk in 1894. It was her second book, and her first to be commercially published. Although today Chopin is considered among the most important women in nineteenth-century American fiction, she was a highly controversial writer during her lifetime. Her novel, The Awakening, published in 1899, brought Chopin critical abuse and public denunciation as an immoralist, and she consequently abandoned writing. More recent critics call it a masterpiece of its time, significant for its social and psychological themes. Special Collections recently acquired a copy of Bayou Folk, in which Chopin has written out and signed a variant version of her poem, “White Oaks,” substituting “live oaks” for “white oaks”: Of all the places on earth I know I’d rather stay where the live oaks grow. From dawn till night, the whole day long They sing their musical, mystical song Of rest, rest for the time is flying, Dream, dream for the day is dying! Oh! That tomorrow were far away And all forever a long today When the world stands still and the soft winds blow In the beautiful land where the live oaks grow! Although Chopin biographer Emily Toth suspects that the author inscribed more than one copy of this book, no others inscribed by her are known to survive, perhaps because the book was not made from sturdy materials. In fact, LSU's copy is so fragile that the originals cannot safely be displayed.